


rebuilding their strength

by atonalremix



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Established Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-03
Updated: 2015-12-03
Packaged: 2018-05-04 16:36:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5341034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atonalremix/pseuds/atonalremix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Superhero AU) Bonnie had always dreamt of nursing her beloved hero Crow back to health - except, when she gets the chance to, she realizes just how faulty her daydreams were.</p>
            </blockquote>





	rebuilding their strength

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was mainly inspired by two things: the prompt, " _Every time I get in a fight you patch me up but now I’m the one patching you up after you tripped on thin air,_ " and Bonnie Bennett CommUnity Week over at tumblr. While this is specifically a continuation of my earlier fic, [Chasing Crow](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2903543), I believe you don't need a ton of context to read this adventure into a slightly AU superhero world! 
> 
> (DCU fans, their world is a pre-reboot one, and both Damon and Bonnie are Shadowpact members - even if no one from the team shows up in this adventure.) As always, please let me know what you think! Kudos and comments are so appreciated. c: 
> 
> This fic also wouldn't have happened without my beta Jay, and for her help, I'm forever grateful.

Most girls dreamed about marrying their childhood superheroes. Bonnie, on the other hand, imagined nursing hers back to full health. In her daydreams, Crow would save her from some dastardly villain - Klarion? Strega? Some nasty sorceress that had it out for a child? - but then his knees would give in and he would fall right into her tiny arms. She would struggle under his weight, but she would lug him back inside and tell him to _stay put_ on their leather couch. Because she was gonna patch him up with band-aids and Grams' ice packs and of course, a little love - though the words would always get stuck in her throat.

She wanted to tell him, but even in her daydreams, she would hold her tongue and stare at him with flushed cheeks. She couldn't. She couldn't, because he was still her beloved hero, and Crow had to share a heart with a whole city.

(He couldn't afford to look at her like that, even if he wanted to.)

"I'm gonna make you chicken noodle soup," she would say, narrowing her eyes like Grams' before she would turn on her heels. "So don't think about leaving, okay?"

He would laugh, smiling at her with those beautiful blue eyes of his. " _I promise._ "

She would come back with shaking arms, holding out the bowl of soup and blowing on each spoonful before feeding it to him. She would raise the edge of his beak-shaped mask, enough to keep his identity concealed, and stay with him until he'd taken every last sip.

" _Miss Bonnie,_ " he would say with the most grateful smile as she turned to set everything aside, " _Thank you._ "

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, all those years later, Crow was nowhere as nice. While his heart no longer belonged to New York City, he protected Mystic Falls from dastardly villains - and they _knew_ how to punch a vampire. This time was no exception: the villain Noise had declared war on Mystic Falls, transforming the town into a grim shadow of its former glory.

As their other friends had fallen to Noise's empty promises, they turned to stone - and the entire population of Mystic Falls hadn't been far behind.

Bonnie and Crow decided, without missing a beat, to fight Noise then and there in the town square. While Bonnie took down Noise's trusty sidekick Symphony, Crow beat the living crap out of Noise, with well-timed punches and a roundhouse kick that made Bonnie grimace. Her nimble hero dodged every energy ray and every counter-strike to deliver a punch that shattered Noise's tainted heart.

Noise (with his fallen sidekick) retreated into the shadows, relinquishing Mystic Falls. As the town turned back to normal, rather than its grim faded shadow self, Crow let out a sigh of relief and turned towards Bonnie.

That was Bonnie's cue: she rushed to his side, right as Crow lifted his mask and pulled off his blond wig to reveal his true identity, as her one and only annoying Damon Salvatore. Every time, his regeneration factor would kick into overtime, and he would inevitably collapse in her arms.

Her arms were stronger now, even if she cheated with a light levitation spell. Weaving a little healing magic into his fresh injuries, she carried him back all the way to Salvatore Manor.

Bonnie sighed, trying to pretend like she was carrying his full weight, "Good grief, Damon. You've gotta be more careful next time."

He scoffed into her ear, "I've got you around, don't I?"

"Small problem with that. I'm not gonna be around forever."

He snarled, revealing his giant fangs. It took every ounce of her strength to resist punching him (and for a second, he was this close to hitting the ground). Their routine was like clockwork: they bickered until they returned to the Manor, and Bonnie would nurse him back to health with blood and a few bottles of bourbon.

This time, she took a blood bag out of the fridge and punctured it before returning to his side. "Here," she said, handing it to Damon as he flopped onto the couch. "This'll build your strength back up."

He eyed the blood bag, as if it would bite him back, before sitting up straighter and accepting it. With each sip, his injuries would fade a little, until they disappeared entirely. (Vampires were lucky: they bounced back from injuries in mere hours.)

As she turned back to the kitchen to fetch a bottle of bourbon, her gaze lingered on the beak-shaped mask on the counter. She had seen that black, beak-shaped mask hundreds of times, even repairing it with fresh coat of paints when necessary. It was the only barrier between Damon and Crow, obnoxious wig aside.

Sometimes, she wondered why Damon had brought Crow out of retirement. He dodged the subject every time, successfully distracting her with a well-timed barb (or worse, a villain rolling into town). She knew, though - Crow must've come back for her.

He never said so out loud. He didn't need to. Crow had vanished from public consciousness, remaining only a footnote in Shadowpact history. Damon had pushed back against Crow's reputation for decades.

" _Is he really worth it? I mean, do you really want to admire a guy who just got up and left after everything he worked so hard for?_ "

If Damon believed every word, Crow would have remained in the 50's, buried in dusty library archives and in the memories of his old colleagues. Damon had cared more for a civilian life, one filled with bourbon and Stefan's eternal misery. There was no room for a kindhearted hero, when every day brought new women and new challenges to face.

Her childhood self would have been disappointed. Little Bonnie would've wept, but current Bonnie - well, current Bonnie guzzled down a bottle of bourbon in one long slip.

She had joined the Shadowpact, the US's only superhero team of magic users, and for what? For her favorite person in the world to fight crime for _her_ sake alone? What a stupid, stupid idea. Damon was a kindhearted person, no matter what silly costume he wore.

When she returned with another bottle of bourbon, he stared at her with a furrowed brow. "You're worried about something."

Her cheeks grew red. "I'm fine, Damon."

He shook his head. "I don't think so. What's up?"

Now or never, Bennett. She took a deep breath, leaning close. Damon mirrored her, reaching out to cup her chin before he pressed his lips against hers. There was _desperation_ in his every move, and she - she broke away, letting go of a breath she didn't know she was holding onto.

"You brought Crow back for me, didn't you?"

He stared blankly at her. " _What._ "

"You said it yourself only a few thousand times. Crow was a dumb hero that didn't deserve my affection - and you like being Damon more. You like the vampire life, and you can't exactly admit you're a vampire when you're in costume, and I--" She was full on rambling now, and she knew it. Taking a deep breath, she steadied her speech. "I don't want you to do something you don't want to do."

He remained frozen there, right until she rose to her feet. Without a word, he seized her hand and intertwined her fingers in hers. "You think I'm doing all of this for you?"

She stared down at their hands, at how natural it felt, and shook her head. "I'd hope not. It's way too much effort."

"I brought Crow back because I thought... if you still have this much faith in him - all of him - maybe the world still needs him." He let out a short laugh. "Good grief, B-town. Even for you, this is a weird conversation."

Bonnie couldn't help the shy smile that appeared on her face. "Maybe."

"I know your hero's dumb, but you don't _always_ have to follow his dumb example."

 _That's what she said,_ Bonnie thought as she pulled away from him. They were always like this, with layers of sarcasm that still managed to convey how they felt. No matter what the future may hold, Damon (and her beloved Crow) would remain by her side.

Instead, she shook her head. "I know. Still, if you ever want to put him back in retirement, you tell me--"

Then she tripped, right over the edge of his Persian rug, and hit her head on the (freshly polished) wooden floor.

 

 

 

 

When the world slid into place again, her head was throbbing with a sudden, sharp pain on the left side. She let out a sharp breath, struggling to sit up straighter and - a bulky blanket impeded her progress.

"Don't move," Damon's voice called out as he leaned forward to readjust the covers.

She ignored his blurry silhouette, sitting up straighter and staring at him. He was dressed in his usual gray t-shirt, leather jacket, and jeans, rather than Crow's (blood-stained) uniform. He must've changed and showered, for him to smell like basil and musky cologne - wait.

Basil? She must've been out longer than she thought, for him to smell like he'd been in the kitchen this long. Even his bottle of bourbon had disappeared, replaced by a steaming hot bowl of chicken noodle soup. Bonnie's mouth watered at the sight of it (at how _good_ it smelt), but she had to turn to him and ask, "Did you make that?"

His cheeks grew slightly flushed. "Of course not."

(He did. She could smell the basil-infused broth; no one in town made it quite like Damon.)

Taking the bowl into his lap, he took a spoonful and blew on it before holding it out to her. "Come on, this'll build your strength back up."

She had half a mind to glare at him. "I tripped on your _rug_. It's not like I used all my magic fighting evil."

"Symphony could've booby-trapped the house," Damon pointed out, his smirk growing wider by the second as he kept feeding soup to her. "For all I know, you've got some nasty lingering injuries that only a seasoned cape like me could patch up."

"You don't even wear a cape." Bonnie huffed, blowing her hair out of her face as she accepted more soup. "Crow's strictly a military uniform kind of guy."

"The slang stuck, Bonbon." He shrugged. "Far be it from me to decide these things."

She reached up to her forehead and oh. Oh that sure was a plastic band-aid she felt. "Wait, did I--"

"There was _blood_ all over my rug, yes."

Of course he was worried about that. Except, as their eyes met, Damon's felt heavier than usual. His fingers held the last (fading) remnants of pricked wounds - had he watched over her? Surely Stefan had done most of the dirty work, or even Elena or Caroline, or just some random that happened to be nearby.

It couldn't have been him, because then that would mean...

Bonnie pulled the covers up, avoiding his gaze. "You didn't have to do any of this."

"You were hurt, Bonnie." Damon's voice grew serious as he took the last spoonful and held it out to her. "Right after you fell, you slept for what, three? Four hours? A really long time. You were probably just tired from fighting Symphony, but...."

His unspoken fears lingered in the air, right as he stared down at the empty bowl. "Stay put. I'll get you some tea."

She managed a faint smile at him. "With extra milk?"

"With extra milk," he promised, rising to his feet.

Just before he left her sight, she called out to him, "Damon?"

He glanced back at her.

"Thank you."

A slow, shy smile graced his features before he headed into the kitchen. She couldn't fully hear him brew her favorite cup of tea - but she didn't need to, when she had seen just how relieved he had looked.

When he returned, she motioned for him to join her. He had hesitated, until she had glared at him with the fire of ten thousand suns, and then...

Well, he stole her covers. He crowed about his amazing victory over the iron villain that had threatened Mystic Falls this week, and he even made some not-so-stellar remarks about the host of creeps that had wandered into town over the years. In short, he was even more annoying than usual.

For once, Bonnie didn't care. "So you're gonna keep Crow around?" She decided to ask, in-between sips of tea. "You genuinely like being him?"

He sighed, as if the entire weight of the world was on his shoulders. "For the last time, _yes_. If I was ready to hang up the cape, I promise - you would be the first to know."

She let out a laugh as she snuggled closer to him. "Just checking."

"Hey, Bonnie?"

"Hm?"

He smiled so wide at her that for a second, she could see Crow in him. "Thank you."

So maybe, Bonnie decided as she returned his affection with a kiss, little Bonnie was onto something here.


End file.
